1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multilayer chip capacitor, and more particularly, to a multilayer chip capacitor having a reduced equivalent series inductance (ESL).
2. Description of the Related Art
A multilayer chip capacitor is used as a useful decoupling capacitor of a high frequency circuit such as a power supply circuit of a LSI. In order to stabilize the power supply circuit, the multilayer chip capacitor is required to have a low equivalent series inductance (ESL). This requirement is further increased as electronic devices tend to be operated in a high frequency and a high current. The stability of the power supply circuit greatly depends on the ESL of the multilayer chip capacitor. In particular, a high stability can be obtained in a low ESL.
In addition, the multilayer chip capacitor is also used as an electro-magnetic interference (EMI) filter. In this case, a low ESL is preferable for a noise removal effect in a high frequency band and a good attenuation characteristic.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,925 discloses a technology of reducing the ESL by using an interdigitated arrangement where leads of first and second internal electrodes having opposite polarities are interdigitated. FIG. 1A is a perspective view illustrating an exterior of a conventional multilayer chip capacitor, and FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional view taken along line A-A′ of FIG. 1A. FIG. 2 is a perspective exploded view illustrating the internal electrode structure of the multilayer chip capacitor of FIG. 1.
Referring to FIGS. 1A through 2, the multilayer chip capacitor 10 comprises a capacitor body 11. First and second internal electrodes 14 and 15 having opposite polarities are disposed on dielectric layers 11a and 11b in the capacitor body 11, respectively. The first and second internal electrodes 14 and 15 are connected to external electrodes 12 and 13 through leads 16 and 17, respectively. The leads 16 of the first internal electrodes 14 and the leads 17 of the second internal electrodes 15 are disposed to be adjacent to each other in an interdigitated arrangement. Since polarities of voltages supplied to the adjacent leads are different, magnetic fluxes generated from high frequency currents applied from the external electrodes are cancelled between the adjacent leads, so that the ESL can be reduced.
However, in order to implement more stabilized power supply circuit of the decoupling capacitor and to more effectively remove the high frequency noise in the EMI filter, it is necessary to further reduce the ESL of the multilayer chip capacitor.